Kurt - The fearless leader of the "New Primitives," he enjoys blasting his buddies if they get bitten by rats. He also strikes a pose before saying his lines. He gets bitten to death.

Taurus - This guy looks a bit like Chuck Norris without the martial arts. He also gets bitten to death and a few rats gnaw a hole through his back.

Video - A video games expert who activates a computer by freak accident. He survives (it's the electronic generation instincts, I tell ya).

Chocolate - Named so because of her skin color, I assume. She and Video have little thing going... ...so she survives too.

Myrna - FREAKING ANNOYING chick that screams every time she sees a rat, spider, corpse, or shadow. She gets blowed up real good by Duke.

Duke - Has his own ideas of what actions the team should take, he keeps trying to screw Kurt over. Ends up blowing himself and Myrna up with a grenade.

Deus - Deus is to the group what Spock was to the Starship Enterprise. He gets bitten to death.

Diana - Thought she was going to be the vital female role, but she gets bitten by rats and the group carries her around for a while until she gets fed up with it all and slits her wrists, and then Kurt shoots her.

Noah - The group's botanist and environmentalist, he gets attacked by rats and Kurt burns him.

The Plot:

In the year 2015, mankind goes ballistic and nuclear bombs crash this way and that. The survivors are forced underground where they remain for years and years. In the year 225 A.B. (After the Bomb), a group of rebels that can't stand underground life anymore go back to the surface. These rebels, dubbed the "New Primitives", find a town and decide to chill out for awhile. Unfortunately for them, they discover that the town is overrun by rats hungry for human flesh. As night falls, they barricade themselves inside a saloon and fend for their lives as boxes and boxes of rats get dumped on their heads. Eventually, Chocolate and Video are escorted to safety by Delta 2, a group of scientists intent on gaining back life on the surface. But the joke's on the New Primitives, it's actually an army of RAT MEN! The characters' voices are dubbed and rarely line up with oral movement... ...it's like a white Godzilla movie. It makes it pretty entertaining though.

Things I Learned From This Movie:

Bikers who wear red scarves or dress like Napoleon aren't that threatening.

Food stays preserved for over two centuries, depending on whether or not it's kept in "strange boxes."

If you find food supplies in a post-nuclear war zone, eat and/or waste them at the first opportunity.

Don't waste time stepping on a rodent to kill it... ...use ammunition.

In 2015, scientists will rely on exaggerated Commodore 64s for research.

If you want to ask a computer a question, kick it.

When a woman compliments your sexual stamina, storm out of the room announcing that you're going to "enjoy your own company."

Narrator: "In the Christian year 2015, the insensitivity of man finally triumphs and hundreds of atomic bombs devastate all five continents. Terrified by the slaughter and destruction, the few survivors of the disaster seek refuge under the ground."

Kurt: "The son of a bitch! We'll be eaten by rats!" Duke: "Was it worth it Kurt? Did you get the water?" Kurt: "It was polluted. The rats got there first and they're headed this way. Open the God damned door!"

Noah suddenly becomes a victim of the terrible rat horde. I still have to ask: who is pouring the buckets of rats over that poor man's head? Mindless human slaves of the rat kingdom? A robot? Stagehands?

Haha, this one was a good hoot. Actors who didn't get to make the cut for Mad Max getting attacked by offscreen stage hands throwing poor rats on them. The film makers didn't think too clearly about the fact that this film takes over 200 years after a nuclear war. I would expect the technology to be a little more advanced than bikes and goofy napoleonic costumes, wouldn't you? The ending is the biggest hoot: turns out Ratmen in radiation suits now rule the world!

Did you know, that in Germany this movie was labeled as third part to the "Bronx Warriors"-movies from Enzo Castellari? They video-company called these two movies "Die Riffs - Die Gewalt sind wir!" and "Die Riffs II - Flucht aus der Bronx". With a little trick of synchronisation, "Rats - Nights of Terror" was the fake third part called "Die Riffs 3 - Die Ratten von Manhatten", hehe. The only thing which "Rats - Nights of Terror" has in common with "Bronx Warriors" and "Escape from the Bronx" is the actor Massimo Vanni.

Think I have to see this. I'm developing a sick sort of fascination with Bruno Mattei's films....may the gods help me...

Re: Rob's comment about technology advancing, while it's probably true that Mattei and Fragasso and whatever other lunatic was involved in this didn't think it through too clearly, there are a lot of things that can put a damper on human progress, and if the scenario really is that whatever people are left are mostly scavenging old stuff (as is usually the case in these movies) it's likely that the war effectively put a stop to much development.